T-5 vs LED vs Halides.. Picture thread

shred5 · May 6, 2014

You tired of the halide vs led vs t-5 debate on which is best? want to see pics of those claims instead?

There are so many threads debating which is the best.. People claim leds are the best, other say halides are the best, some say t-5. They claim they have been having great results well show us the results of your Reef Aquarium lighting, back up what you are saying or it is just words. Prove it with pictures..

Post pics of your tanks and list the specs of the tank and lighting.. Dont show others tanks lets see your aquarium... Also make sure they have been running for a while not like: well I have had this fixture for a week... Na that dont cut it..
IE:
My tank is a 120 gallon with two 250 watt single ended iwasaki's with two 4' actinic vho supplementation in a Hamilton fixture..
My tank is a 75 gallon with a ati powermodule 6X54 with 2 coral + and 4 blue +

No more talk show the pics and let them speak for themselves.

Pete polyp · May 6, 2014

Coral taken from led system. Pictured under t5 day 1

3 months under t5

Same story, taken from led tank, pictured under t5

3 months later

29g, six bulb t5

Pete polyp · May 6, 2014

First picture didn't attach

jackson6745 · May 6, 2014

I have halide, T5, and LED over my tank :neutral:
IMO, a good quality light with full coverage, and a non damaging spectrum is important, but nutrient balance is more important.

32x32 cube
Sfiligoi Xr6 fixture 400w radium + 4x T5. Also 2 blue LED reefbrites

May5 by rich.colombo, on Flickr

Pete polyp · May 6, 2014

jackson6745 said:
I have halide, T5, and LED over my tank :neutral:
IMO, a good quality light with full coverage, and a non damaging spectrum is important, but nutrient balance is more important.
May5 by rich.colombo, on Flickr

Very important... With my unbalanced nutrients and big swings in alk I'm surprised everything in my tank hasn't died already lol

revhtree · May 6, 2014

I like this thread!

ritter6788 · May 6, 2014

2 x 120w LEDs. Been running over 3 years now. Everything in there grown from small frags.

FTS 1/26/14 by ritter6788, on Flickr

TheGrimmReefer · May 6, 2014

Radion Pros for me

Looking back at old pics, found this one posted right at about 6 months ago...

E2E09E67-8813-4C1B-AB58-C745E51281E4-5140-0000016585E39082_zpsfea3730d.jpg

5 months ago...

IMG_0872 by thegrimmreefer88, on Flickr

and one month ago

IMG_3210 by thegrimmreefer88, on Flickr

I definitely enjoy seeing the progression

Zuska · May 6, 2014

jackson6745 said:
I have halide, T5, and LED over my tank :neutral:
IMO, a good quality light with full coverage, and a non damaging spectrum is important, but nutrient balance is more important.

32x32 cube
Sfiligoi Xr6 fixture 400w radium + 4x T5. Also 2 blue LED reefbrites
May5 by rich.colombo, on Flickr

Very nice tank

TJ's Reef · May 6, 2014

Like this thread as well Dave, so I guess I'll play along to.

125g DT (60x24x20) setup December of 2011. Ultra high bio-load Mixed Reef, primarily SPS. Lighting is a Custom DIY Broad Spectrum LED array. Seven circuits driven by Mean Well 6048D's and mainly binned Cree emitters.

FTS 3/16/14

My DIY LED array

Random Top-Down shots taken with my Droid Razor from 1/23/14 roughly left-to-right

Just took some new Top Downs and will post in my Build thread shortly

Cheers, Todd

Towner · May 6, 2014

6 T5 ho's powered by 2 coralvue 660 ballasts. Geissmann Bulbs. 3 Actenic+, 2 Aquablue+, and one midday.

ritter6788 · May 6, 2014

TJ's Reef said:
]

Do your LEDs have optics TJ?

nanoreef123 · May 6, 2014

ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1399427247.220488.jpg

ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1399427333.388827.jpg

ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1399427383.320151.jpg

ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1399427442.558527.jpg

Ocean revive Arctic-T247 very happy with this light

Pete polyp · May 6, 2014

I'm liking this thread a bunch too... Keep the beautiful pictures coming!

TJ's Reef · May 6, 2014

ritter6788 said:
Do your LEDs have optics TJ?

Hey Gabriel, no they do not. I started with about 60-70 of them mostly 80* and slowly removed them all for better blending / less Disco and with my tank only 20" high they really were not necessary. Because of the overall spread of my emitters I also get a fairly consistent PAR reading throughout the entire tank top-to-bottom, side-to-side and front-to-back ranging approx 250-350 and around 100-150 underneath tabling Acros.

Cheers, Todd

trido · May 6, 2014

ritter6788 said:
Do your LEDs have optics TJ?

I can answer that for you. NO, there are no optics on his emitters.

trido · May 6, 2014

My 210 from the year 2009 with 400watt MH 20 K radiums ( possibly a 12K reeflux bulb)

March of 2014 with Evergrow LED's.
My Green slimer, ORA green stylo, Purple Pocillopora (which is in almost the same place) and baby blue calaustrea have almost the same colors in both pics.